Machines



(No Model.) 4 Sheets-Sheet 1.

E. NORDBLOM.

DELI-VERY APPARATUS FOR PRINTING MACHINES.

No. 864,625. Patented June 7, 1887-.

Jzaeez: I I Ivwenim (No Model.) 4 Sheets-Sheet 2.

E. NORDBLOM. DELIVERY APPARATUS FOR PRINTING MACHINES. No. 364,625. Patented June 7, 1887.

r4. Ptrzns. Phcloiflhnghpher. Washington, 0. c

.(No Model.) 4 Sheets-Sheet 3.

E. 'NORDBLOM.

DELIVERY APPARATUS FOR PRINTING MACHINES.

No. 364,625. Patented June -'7, 1887.-

N. PEI'ERS. PhnbLilhographer, Washington. D. C.

(No Model.) 4 Sheets-Sheet 4.

B. NORDBLOM. DELIVERY APPARATUS FOR PRINTING MACHINES.

No, 364,625. I Patented June 7, 1887 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ERNST NORDBLOM, OF NE\V YORK, -N. ASSIGNOR TO B. HOE & 00., OF

SAME PLACE.

DELIVERY APPARATUS FOR PRINTING-MACHINES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 364,625, dated June 7, 1887.

Application filed February 27, 1885. Serial No. 157,184. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ERNsT NORDBLOM, a citizen of the United States, residing at New York, county of New York, and State of New delivering sheets from printing-machines, and

are especially adapted for use with machines used for printing newspapers. Y

The object to be attained is the collecting or associating'of two or more successive sheets produced by the printing-machine and then folding the same together as one product,which sheets are fastened together (if it is desired) by applying paste to one sheet, so that the two will be united thereby along theline of folding.

The invention consists, principally, in combining, with a common source of supply of sheets, conducting pathways operating to carry successive sheets to separate folding-machines, and means for directing the sheet folded by one folding-machine to another of the foldingmachines, so that all the sheets constituting a a whole may be delivered folded one within the other as a single product, all of which is 0 more particularly hereinafter explained and claimed. p

In the drawings illustrating a machine embodying this invention, Figure l is a sectional elevation on the dotted section-line x of Fig. 2. Fig. 2 is a plan or top view. Fig. 3 is a cross-sectional elevation on the line y of Fig. 2. Fig. 4 is a similar view of a modification. Fig. 5 is a view of one folding blade detached, and Figs. 6 and 7 are sectional elevations of so much of the mechanisms as is necessary to illustrate a modified form of sheet-controlling device and exhibit the same in two operative positions.

The machine illustrated embodies only a de- +5 livcring mechanism. It is adapted to operate with any means that will produce sheets and present them to it in regular order, of which sheets successive ones are companions, or constitute a single whole, as the two halves of a newspaper.

Although it is not material how the sheets are produced, preferably that will be accoinplished by such a printing-machine as perfects a web of paper and is provided with a cutting mechanism operating to divide such a web transversely into appropriate sheets. The cutin unison with it, one of said cylinders, as 30,

being provided with a cutting-blade, as 32, 6 that cooperates with a cutting'slot, as 28, providedin the cylinder 20, and arranged to leave the sheets joined together by slight filaments only. This delivering mechanism will embody as many folding mechanisms as there are sheets to be associated and folded, and means for directing successive sheets alternately to eaclfof said folding mechanisms, and the folded product of one to the other of the foldingmachines.

In the practical mechanism chosen for illustrating this invention the number of sheets associated and folded is twosuch, for instance, as are so printed as to constitute a single productas an eight-page newspaper. s The delivering mechanism in this instance therefore consists of two folding mechanisms, each provided with a sheet-conducting pathway leading from the common source of supply of the sheets, a sheet-controlling device 8 directing sheets alternately to one and the other pathway, and conductors for directing the folded product of one folding-machine t0 theother, whereby two following sheets may be associated and folded together, oneinset within the other.

The common source of supply of the sheets is the printing-machine, and connected with it is a main or primary conducting pathway, in which the sheets are led out from the print- 5 ing'machine, and with this primary pathway are combined auxiliary or secondary and tertiary conducting pathways that lead therefrom to the folding-machines and operate through the medium of a controlling device to conduct IOO sheets alternately to one and the other of the folding-machines, one of which auxiliary pathways is suitably longer than the other, to enable the alternate sheets to arrive in proper relative time at the separate folding-machines to be folded thereby and be brought together or associated at regular intervals of time.

The foldingmachines consist of folding-rollers 40 41 5O 51 and vibrating, co-operating, folding, or tucking blades 42 52, said rollers being provided with means for causing their rotation at uniform surface speed, and the folding-blades with means for vibrating the same at proper intervals and in proper time to tuck or enter the sheets into the nip of said folding rollers. The means for producing these motions of the folding rollers and blades are not shown, as folding mechanisms of this character are well known in the art, and said means may be any of the well-known appliances now in common use for the purpose.

The primary or main sheet-conducting pathway in which the successive sheets are conveyed outward from the printing-machine extends from the cutting-cylinders of the printing-machine to a point where the auxiliary or secondary and tertiarysheet-conducting pathways, diverging from theprimary path way,are extended, respectively, to a folding-machine, and at the juncture of these auxiliary pathways with the primary pathway there is provided (in one instance) a switch (one form of sheet-controlling device) capable of vibrating so as to direct successive sheetsarriving at that point'in the primary pathway alternately into the secondary and tertiary pathways by which said sheets are carried to one and the other of the folding-machines.

The main or primary and the auxiliary or secondary and tertiary sheet-conducting pathways consist of under and upper tapes, 10 11, and cooperating tapes 12 13. The under set of tapes, 10, extend from a roller, 60, hung near the cutting apparatus, over a roller, 61, thence outward in a plane over the lower folding-rollcrs, 5051, and return over rollers 62 63 to the roller 60. The upper set of tapes, 11, run from a roller, 70, hung above the roller and near the cutting apparatus, thence pass over the roller 61, under the roller 71, thence upward over a roller, 72, thence outward in a plane above the folding-rollers 4O 41, and return over rollers 73 74 to the roller 70. A third set of tapes, 12, run from a roller, 90, over roller 72, thence outward in a plane above the rollers 40 41 and beneath the tapes 11 and return over a roller, 91 92. A fourth set of tapes, 13, run from a roller, 80, in a plane above the folding rollers 50 51 and return over a roller, 81. The tapes 10 11 form the primary sheet-conducting pathway for the sheets from the cutting-cylinders to a point where the tapesll leave the roller 7]. The tapes 1 it in conjunction with the tapes 12, form the secondary sheetconducting pathway for the sheets from the said primary pathway to and over the foldingrollers 40 11, and the tapes 10, in conjunction with the tapes 13, form the tertiary sheet-conducting pathway for the sheets from the said primary pathway to and over the folding-rollers 50 51. The junction of the primary and auxiliary sheetcondueting pathways is at the roller or pulleys 71, where the tapes 10 11 separate, each to form a part of the secondary and tertiary sheet-conducting pathways, respectively, and at this point is provided a means for controlling the cou'rse of the sheets as they arrive there into one or the other of these pathways.

Of the many devices for directing the sheets or controlling their outward movement so as to force them from one course to another, there are many known to this art, but for the purposes of this invention a vibrating switch is selected. This switch .14 is mounted to vibrate upon a rock-shaft,-15, and it obviously may be a continuous structure or be made up of a number of separate pieces mounted in suitable number upon said rock-shaft, which lat ter is moved at proper intervals of time, as will be explained. Its ofiice is to guide sheets from the primary pathway into the secondary or tertiary pathway, according as its point is moved within or without the periphery of the roller 71 for the purpose. The switch or its separate members is a somewhat triangular structure curved at its front edge, so that when it stands in the position shown in Fig. 1 said edge will coincide with the periphery of the roller 71, and thus form, in conjunction with the tapes 11, a continuation of the primary pathway from the bottom of the roller 71, where the tapes 10 diverge, t0 the roller 90, where the tapes 13 are met; and the lower surface of the switch is straight, so that when the point of the switch is rocked within the periphery of the roller 71 (grooved for the purpose) said lower edge will practically form, in conjunction with the tapes 10, a-continuation of the pathway from the roller 71, where the tapes 11 diverge, to the roller 80, where the rollers 12 are met. The rock-shaft 15 has a rock-arm, 2, moved by a connecting-rod, 3, and a stud or pin, 4, carried thereby and running in a groove, 5, of a cam, 36, revolved in proper time by a wheel, 93, that gears with a wheel, 98, of a train, 95 96 97 98 99, which derive motion from a wheel, 21, on the shalt of the cutting-cylinder 20, and the wheel 99 of which train drives the wheels 75, 76, 77, and 78,that are upon the rollers 61 71 90 80, which drive the tapes through the rollers 61 71 9O 80, over which the various tapes pass; and the proportion of the driver 99 to the driver 75 is such (that is, relatively larger) that the tape systems run at a somewhat greater speed than the cutting-cylinders, whereby the sheets in the primary series of tapes are nipped in passing over the roller 61, and accelerated or move with greater speedthan they are conveyed to said tapes, whereby is produced between successive sheets a working-space, as is common in deliveries for web-printing machines; and it is to bennderstood that the folding-rollers will be driven with proper surface speed, and that the folding-blades will be given a suitable co operating movement.

Arranged with the tertiary series of tapes, midway of the apparatus, is a pasting apparatus consisting of a disk, 16, having an interrupted periphery that'runs in contact with a disk, 17, that dips into a paste-vat, 18. These disks are mounted upon shafts that are revolved in unison by means of gears 64 driven .by an intermediate, 66, from the wheel 78. The periphery of the pasting-disk16 enters the plane of the tertiary pathway for the sheets, and by reason of the construction of its edge applies a broken line of paste to the sheets as they run in contact with it. The folding-rollers 40 41, to which the secondary pathway conducts its sheets, are situated directly over the folding-rollers 50 51, to which the tertiary pathway conducts its sheets, and the rollers 40 41 are provided with a conductor which directs the sheets passing through said rollers to the folding-rollers 50 51. Said conductor, in one form, consists of tapes 25, that run from the rollers 40 and return over a roller, 26, and a series of guides, 27, hung on a rod with their upperends extending into grooves in the roller 41 and depending parallel with said tapes 25. These guides, as shown in Fig.

3, are made to form one side of said conductor in order to provide for the operation of the folding-blade 52; but a conductor leading from one set of folding-rollers to the other might be composed in the main of tapes, asis shown in Fig. 4, which will be hereinafter explained.

Each set of folding-rollers should be pro vided with suitable means for arresting the sheets in proper position over said rollers to cause their accurate folding by the foldingblades. Of the manydevices in common use for this purpose, small gages or stops, 49, are shown.

The operation is as follows: The cuttingcylinders 20 30 operate to divide the web transversely into half -sheets, and all these sheets are conveyed by the primary conducting pathway, composed of the tapes 11 12, onward to thefsecondary and tertiary pathways. As eaizllfsliet is nipped between the rollers 61 71, or by the tapes passing over the roller 61, said sheet will take up the motion of the delivery apparatus, and thus be carried onward into the same at such accelerated speed as will complete the separation of sheet from sheet and the tail of one sheet from the head of the succeeding sheet, as is illustratedin Fig. 1, and thus produce a working-space between sheet and sheet for the operation of the switch 14. The cam 5 being properly timed will alternately vibrate the switch 14, so that the same will stand in the position shown in Fig.

1, and thus direct the first sheet into the secondarypathway composed of the tapes 1112,

and cause the same to be conveyed over the rollers 40 41. When the tail of this first sheet has passed beyond the switch, the latter will be quickly vibrated, so thatits pointis within the periphery of the roller 71, and thereupon the second sheet will be directed into the tertiary pathway composed of the tapes 10 13, and be carried out over the rollers 50 51. The lengths of the pathways are relatively such that the sheets will arrive over the foldingrollers and be registered against the stops 49 in proper time to be folded and combined, as follows: The half-sheet conveyed by the secondary pathway over the rollers 40 41 will be creased or doubled by the folding-blade 42 into the nip of the rollers 40 41, be folded thereby, and the folded sheet be conveyed by the conductor 25 27 to the folding mechanism to which alternate sheets are conveyed by the tertiary pathway, and so that the doubled edge of this folded sheet will arrive at the folding-point of the surface of the half-sheet conveyed by the tertiary pathway over the rollers 50 51, while said sheet is lying flat or in position to be folded and at the same instant that the folding-blade 52 engages the latter sheet and 0per ates to crease and double the same into the rollers 50 51. The result of this is that the doubled or leading edge of the folded sheet received from the rollers 40 41 and'the operating edge of the folding-blade 52 reach the folding-point of the half-sheet in the tertiary pathway simultaneously, or about so, and as the unfolded sheet is being folded the said folded sheet is entered within it, and both run through the folding-rollers 50 5L-together,'the. two halfsheets thus being folded one within the other, and becoming associated in booklike form as a single product. If the pasting apparatus is in operation (and it may be omitted) these half-sheets will be bound to gether on the line of fold, by reason of the sheet passing through the tertiary pathway having received along its line of fold a line of paste by contact with the paste-disk 16.

From the mode of operation just described it will be observed that if the folding-blade 52 is made with a plain surface like the folding blade 42, as is common in folding machines, its edge will at each folding-stroke have contact with the line of paste applied to the sheet which it folds, and thus cause defective operation. To avoid this, the pasting-disk 16 is not only cutaway in places, but is geared so as to always supply the paste to the sheets at the same points only, and the edge of the folding-blade 52 is cut away in corresponding places, so that its contact-edges will bear upon the unpasted portions of the sheet, and thus avoid picking up the paste or interfering with the perfect operation of the apparatus.

Inthe modification Fig. '4 the conductor between the upper folding-rollers, 40 41, and the lower foldingrollers, 50 51, is made up principally of tapes. Thus the tapes 25 are stretched over an intermediate roller, 67, in

their passage from the roller 40 to the roller 26, and corresponding tapes, 19, running from the roller 41 pass over an intermediate roller, 68, and the guides or conductors 27 are arranged so as to guide the sheet to the foldingline of the sheet conveyed to the rollers 50 51 in the tertiary pathway and rctu rn over a roller, 45. Thus is formed a conductor that delivers the sheet from the rollers 40 41 in an inclined positionover the rollers 50 51, the sheet so delivered being registered against a gage, 49, in position to have its extreme folded edge struck by the folding-blade 52, and thus pressed down into contact with the lower sheet, the two thus being pressed together into the nip ofthe folding-rollers 50 51 and delivered folded, as before described.

The sheetconducting pathways may in part be made up of rods, as is illustrated by the rods 28 29 in Fig. 4, where they are made up of tapes below and rods above. They may consist of rods below and above, in which case suitable impelling mechanism as driving- 1'olls-may be provided, or gravity may be depended upon to insure the proper discharge or passage of the sheets from one folding mechanism to the other.

A modified form of sheetcontrolling device is illustrated in Figs. 6 and 7. This consists in fixing the switches 14 stationary and mounting the shaft of the roller 71 in arms projecting from a rock-shaft, to which proper vibrations are given by means of the rock-arm 2, its connecting-rod, and the cam 36, whereby the roller will be moved at properintervals to hold the tapes imposition, as in Fig. 6, to carry the sheets between the switch and said roller into the secondary pathway, or to depress the tapes, as in Fig. 7, to carry the sheets beneath the switch and outward into the tertiary pathway.

The primary sheet conducting pathway might be any means for conveying the sheets to the auxiliary pathways, as a pair of rollers.

The device for controlling the entrance of the sheets into the auxiliary pathways might be a drop -roller, vibrating fingers, air, and like equivalents for a switch, or swinging tapes or a vibrating conductor, and the like.

The auxiliary pathways might be so arranged that these sheet-controlling mechanisms'would only operate with respect to one path, gravity being allowed to cause the sheets to follow the other pathway.

The conductors leading from, one foldingmachine to the other are not gfisential, as if the folding-rollers of the two folding mechanisms are properly related the sheet from one will be fed in proper position to the other, as will appear from an inspection of Fig. 3; or guides 27 may alone be depended upon, since they will prevent the sheet from interfering with the folding-blade 52.

Any substitute for the vibrating foldingblades may of course be adopted without departing from the spirit of the invention. \Vherever rollers are mentioned and pulleys are suitable,of course the latter may be adopted for supporting the carrying-tapes.

It is intimated that the pasting apparatus is not essential to the main invention, and it may now be stated that the structure of this pasting apparatus and the folding-blade 52 is likewise not essential to the main invention, as it is apparent that if the pasting apparatus be removed the sheets will be inset and associated but not united, aproduct of this kind being a practical one. The pasting apparatus might be arranged with the secondary pathway to apply paste to the sheet which, after being folded, is combined with another sheet; but if this arrangement were made, while it would enable the folding-blade 52 to have a continuous edge, it would require that an equivalent removal of the surfaces of the rollers 40 41 should be madethat is, that said rollers should be grooved at proper points to avoid taking paste from the surfaces of the sheet folded through them.

By this invention the associating or combining of two or' more successive sheets and the folding of the same together, so as to constituteasingle product, is accomplished within a compass much less than has been possible with the ordinary super-imposing devices, for the reason that such associating or super-imposing is here done in the folding apparatus, thus avoiding the necessity of extending the machine lengthwise to the extent of the dimensions of said folding apparatus.

The pasting apparatus, both in its structure and combination with the other parts, including the folding-blade with interrupted edge, is not of my invention, and forms no part of the presentclaims.

Having thus explained the improvements,

'What is claimed is- 1. A mechanism for associating sheets, the same consisting of a primary pathway for carrying successive sheets onward, auxiliary pathways communicating therewith and each provided with a folding mechanism, and means for directing alternate sheets into said auxiliary pathways, said folding mechanisms being combined and arranged in such relation as to direct the folded product of one to the other, substantially as described.

2. The combination,with a main or primary pathway for sheets and secondary and tertiary pathways, and means for directing alternate sheets to the latter, of folding mechanisms for independently folding the sheets in the secondary and tertiary pathways, and so constructed and relatively arranged as to direct the folded sheet from one folding mechanism to the other folding mechanism, whereby the sheets are associated and folded one within the other, substantially as described.

3. The combination of the two sets of folding-rollers 40 41 50 51 and folding-blades 42 52, constituting independent folding mechanisms that are constructed and relatively arranged so that the sheet from one mechanism passes to the other and the latter operates to In testimony whereof I have hereunto set insertone sheetwithin the other, substantially my hand in the presence of two subscribing as described. witnesses.

4. The combination, with two diverging 5 pathways and a stationary switch or guide, ERNST NORDBLOM.

0f carryingtapes and avibrating roller, wherer by according to the movement of said roller Witnesses: the tapes will operate to direct a sheet past CHAS. W. CARPENTER, one or the other surface of the switch or guide, P. E. ALLIOT. 10 substantially as described. 

